Something Jack Nicholson said...

Floyd Bennet Field Time Trial...

Six weeks later, (four weeks off the bike and just two weeks back on since my crash) brought me to the Floyd Bennet TT yesterday. My right leg still carries healing scars from the deep road rash and my Abductor, while much better still sends me that tiny reminder every so often.

Last season I did the race in approximately 34 minutes avg'ing 19 mph. I set my goal on a 20 mph avg this time hoping the time off the bike wouldn't have too ill an effect on me. I did the distance in Rock Lake using the "third" loop to cut out he climbs and avg'd 20 mph so I was hopeful.

The day dawned with the guarantee of a full on scorcher that would surely turn the concrete runways of FBF into a BBQ nightmare for the racers. I rode down with a buddy topdown to get the breeze and not waste the gas on AC...

We pulled in round about 8:15am giving us plenty of time to hang out and watch the early racers go off before our own warm ups. I walked around checking out all the equipment and talking to some other racers....

I'd been hydrating all day so I felt pretty good about doing the 11.5 miles sans water bottle. I decided NOT to warm up on my trainer as I wanted the breeze to help cool me as opposed to pushing watts in a stationary position while the sun cooked me. Turned out it may have been the right decision as two of us rode warmup around the lot while the other two did their revs on the trainer and had issues either during or after the race....

Start time hit, 95 degrees!. Frank Finochio's start was 2 ahead of me. I pushed out to the start line and half listened to the starters instructions.

Time Trialing, as I'm learning is a very precise science despite differing views on the best way to improve speed and aero. My game plan was to sprint out of the chute for a good ten seconds then settle in to my pace and concentrate on consistency.

Equipment:Guru Trilight TT bike, Giro Advantage Aero helmet, Ksyrium bladed wheels using Wheelbuilder wheel covers for the rear wheel essentially turning the wheel into a disc. Full sleeve Skinsuit and wind socks...

Lap 1 of the 2.3 mile course had me testing the waters. Half the course was a wind tunnel while the other was all dead air and puddles. As I hit the wind I decided to flip to my small ring and throw up a high cadence to conserve strength and rely on my aero position to help maintain an avg speed of 17/18 mph.

Once turning onto the back stretch I flipped into the 50/19 and pushed between 23 and 26 mph. I avoided the puddles and pushed on. Split time:6:06

Lap 2- I settled in feeling the heat but not too worried...yet, despite the bad venting of a good aero helmet. Hit that wind again but kept solid to the plan that I laid down for lap 1. However as I rounded the turn for the backend run I decided I was going to deliberately go through as many puddles as I could in a straight line to get some cool down from the splashback. It worked perfectly and I did that for the rest of the race. Split: 6:13

Lap 3- More of the same but started to feel the heat and fatigue which was evident in my time loss. I took a puddle too close to the muddy end and almost wiped out but held on. Split; 6:25

Lap 4- The hammer of the Gods dropped on me and I was praying to every deity I ever heard of to get me through this lap. I was hot, I was fatigued and I was hurting. Split 6:35

Lap 5- Showtime. I felt a bit better than lap 4 but not by much. I had The back end of things two and been The back end of things by two. I sliced through the wind for the last time grateful that I was past that and set in to try and make up a little time on the back stretch. I picked a rabbit and overtook him just at the last turn before the finish. I pushed as hard as I could crossing the line with a split of 6:24.

Finish time- 31:45, sixth place in my cat.

I The back end of things my goal of 20mph avg setting an avg of 21.5. I was extremely happy with my form but a bit less so with my consistency. I did however beat last year by about 3 minutes, maybe more. I have to go check my time on that.

It was a great race day all around with some great race partners despite the inferno, but as JAck Nicholson said; "BURN BABY BURN".

Eric J

Something Steve Prefontaine once said...

Six weeks. That's about how long its been. Only been back on the bike for roughly two weeks. Sunday is my first race back. An 11 mile Time Trial. The race of truth as they call it.

No hiding in the pack, no coasting while sucking wheel. Just you and your bike toughing it out against the clock. And the clock is a merciless opponent.

You know what TT's remind me of? Holding a heavy book in your hands above your head. It just hurts more and more as time wears on. Know what I mean? That incessant dogged soreness, that burn of fatigue...

Got my TT bike all pimped out with Wheelbuilder aero wheel covers, a shiny new Aero helmet. I'll look fast anyway. Don't know how strong I'll be but I'm going to give it all I got, cause that's the only way I know how anyway. Because after all;

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift."--Steve Prefontaine

Eric J

Something the Foo Fighters once said...

Well, what does one say. Almost 6 weeks to the day when I ran my bike into a heathen creature of the woods. And in the interim I was the victim of Indentity theft, but that's another story. Let's just stick to the topic at hand.

Its been a long road to ruin and my first race back is Sunday at CRCA's FBF TT. I've been training for a whopping two weeks now with as much structure as I was able to muster. Running has been uber painful my first two attempts, the first lasting 2 minutes before I limped home and the second 6.5 before throwing in the towel. So I guess its getting better.

As it turns out what happened as close as Me and the Doc can make out is that when I hit the Demon Bambi of Tiorati Street I slid into him sideways flipping over him laterally. My left cleat unclipped with no problem while my right did not disengage until the cleat itself snapped in two. In the interim I strained and pulled my Adductor and other various groups in the upper thigh as well as strained the knee.

I was on a cane for several days the first week and hobbling for weeks after. My first ride back a couple weeks ago while on vacation was slow and measured. Painful at first then uncomfortable and finally relatively painfree but exhausting. Oddest and most unsettling of all was how foreign my bike felt to me for the first 5 miles or so.

Like most of you my bike/s are an extension of myself, a part of me like my arm or leg. This feeling of disassociation really creeped me out. Then of course there was having to deal with freaking out every time I heard an animal thrash through the brush....

I finally got out last week for a 50 miler to Bear Mountain getting in some hills and not feeling completely dead afterwards and following that up with a 50 miler to the GW bridge on Memorial day. I felt okay but could not sustain any kind of power for long and my lungs were just shot.

At one point a train of Organic Athlete riders passed by and signalled for me to hop on their wheel and I couldn't stay glued for more than a minute... That depressed the hell outta me.

I've done a couple good threshold workouts since then and while my Vo2 is well below my max I'm on the mend. I can definitely NOT hold out in a pack race but I'm feeling well enough to at least hold my own in a TT. Besides I'm jonesing to try out my spiffy new skinsuit. Of course I'll look like a beached whale unless I lose all of the NINE POUNDS I PUT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!

Been a tough month+ and one I am so so glad to be on the other side of it. So its back on the long road to ruin with training. I have Sunday's TT and then I'll be going easy as I need to protect my August as I have Silvermine, Timberman Tri in New Hampshire and Westpoint Tri the week after that...

I did a w/u today followed by a 12 mile TT in full Skinsuit. Maintained 20mph despite some pain so I hope I'm good to go for Sunday. Looks like I'm back on that:
Long Road To Ruin... (Foo Fighters)

Be careful out there...

Eric J